Someone screamed and suddenly the platform was chaos, people running, dodging, getting out of the way. The air mage started advancing towards me again, glass crunching under his boots. “That,” I said tightly, “was not necessary.”

The mage didn’t answer. He was still studying me from behind his glasses, and the air blade was by his side again. He’d obviously figured out that I was hurt, and he was intending to get in close to finish the job.

There. To my right, people were running onto the train at the platform. Behind me I could sense a man in an orange TFL vest staring down at the activity, and he was next to the train’s control panel. DLR trains don’t have drivers, but they do have a manual override. All of a sudden I had a plan. “You know what, screw it,” I said. “This isn’t worth dying for.” I pulled a pouch from my pocket.

The air mage paused, studying me. The pouch was the one I use for my condensers, padded to stop them from breaking. There was one left, still inside, a marble-shaped item about the same size and shape as the focus I’d found last night. I let him get a brief look at it, and then from behind me I sensed the TFL man hit the button and I moved.

The air mage’s hand came up and another spell flashed down the platform. He’d been expecting me to run for the train, but I hadn’t; I’d thrown the pouch into the train, and the shards of hardened air crossed paths with it midflight. It landed on the train floor and skidded, just as the doors closed behind it with a thump. With a whine of electrics the train started to move.

The air mage looked between me and the train. “Now what?” I said. I had to speak loudly over the rumble of wheels. “You can get me, or you can go after that focus. But you stay to finish me and that focus’ll be gone by the time you catch up.” I stepped back. “Which is it going to be?”

The air mage hesitated and I held my breath, feeling the futures swirl ahead of us. So many things could go wrong. He should have had just enough time to sense the magic from the condenser, but if he’d gotten a good enough look at that pouch before the doors cut his magesight off, he would have seen that it wasn’t the right one. Or I might have guessed wrong and it was me he was after. Or maybe—

Then the air mage gave one quick shake of his head and started running down the platform. I scrambled for cover, but he sprinted right past, matching the train’s speed and then leaping off the platform. The jump was impossibly high and graceful, arcing through the air to land with a thump on the train’s roof. I had a last glimpse of him straightening, holding his balance easily on the rocking carriage, before starting to walk towards where I’d thrown the pouch. He didn’t look back.